In 1961, Ronald Reagan recorded a spoken-word LP (that’s a 12-inch grooved vinyl disc, for you folks born after 1990 – we used to play them on our gramophones) with a brilliant diatribe against Medicare called “Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine“:

There’s no actual video to this video, so you’ll have to find another way to amuse yourself for 10 minutes while you listen. I recommend spending the time taking notes so you can throw Reagan’s arguments in the faces of any moron that thinks that socialized medicine is a good idea.

My favorite part is how he talks about Medicare being just an early first step toward introducing a national program of socialized medicine.

17 Comments

Excellent find, Harvey. And you know, people forget – even now – how involved Reagan was in national politics that long ago (I became a fan of his in high school in the 60’s). God, I miss that guy. Is there ANYONE out there with his brain and guts and ability to communicate? I don’t think so. We are one sorry nation now. We don’t have ANYONE in public life who can match that man’s convictions. How lucky we were to have him President for eight years. *Sigh*

It just does not get any better than this. Thank you, Harvey. Jimmy, the primary reason Obooboo won was because there was not a Ronald Reagan running. The Republicans begin to get someone of Reagan’s stature and they (the party) run away, or stomp them down. The party’s sabotage of Palin was an example.

We need another Reagan to come and undo all the harm that the democarts have done to this country. Someone who could blow Obama out of the water in 2012 and knock people like Reid, Peliose ,Boxer, Frank, and Waxman down a few pegs and put them in there place.

SOB, I defy you to prove any of those cited as showing any signs of Leadership lately. Leadership is a quality, not a title we give to the weak-kneed pansies representing the Republicans these day. Sure I am glad I got the message that My (former) Party just wanted me to shut up about principles, ethics and ideals and just vote R. I got it so loud and clear that I registered with no Party Affiliation as no Party at present is actually Conservative anymore.

“Now back in 1927 an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket, said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism the American people would adopt every fragment of the socialist program. . . .”
— Ronald Reagan, 1961

The reason why they’re terrible is that you don’t have a comprehensive system of nationalised healthcare. So what happens is that the HMOs shove the expensive cases off onto the state while continuing to collect premiums from healthy people in return for doing nothing. This is what people mean when they say “nationalising the costs and privatising the profits.” This isn’t lefty hyperbole, it’s an accurate assessment of what actually happens.

So how does it happen? Many different ways, but one egregious example is in the case of leukaemia patients. Supposedly what happens is that when you are diagnosed with leukaemia your employer’s HMO will slap a 1 million dollar increase on their premiums, and make it clear that the increase will go away as soon as you do. Your employer can’t fire you for getting sick, of course, but they can always find a reason eventually, and they have a million reasons to find one.

So once you’re out of a job and uninsurable your only choice is to spend your savings paying for healthcare up-front until you’re sufficiently destitute to qualify for medicaid. Then the government has to pay for your care, while the HMOs continue to profit by only providing their service to people who don’t really need it.

If you look at the budget for medicare and medicaid and compare them to the cost of the British NHS, you’ll find that the NHS costs slightly less per 1000 people. This is one of the reasons why. Nationalised medicine means that decisions about care are made by doctors and not by businessmen, which is how it should be.

What you need to understand is that you already have a ‘socialised’ system. That is, you share liability with a bunch of other people; if one of them gets sick, your premiums go up. The house always wins. What you have is a socialised system that has no duty of care, which can simply weasel out of covering people who might be a burden. That means that your premiums may stay down, but your taxes will go up – and you’ll still be paying the premiums as well.

You could try to keep the taxes down by abolishing medicare and medicaid and simply letting the uninsured die, but even people with good insurance can find themselves uninsured very easily. If you aren’t a millionaire then that option is not only selfish, it’s tantamount to playing Russian roulette.

I don’t care how right-wing you are, a system that works is a system that works, and a system that doesn’t is a system that doesn’t. Support healthcare reform.

“Nationalised medicine means that decisions about care are made by doctors and not by businessmen, which is how it should be.”

Doctors ARE businessmen. If they don’t make a profit, they can’t maintain their practice and they’ll either have to go to work for someone else, or choose another profession where they CAN make a profit.

All socialized medicine will get you is the same crappy care & run-down facilities that you find at VA hospitals.

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